The Detectives (2018) s02e06 Episode Script
The Last Fare
1 I always think about Lucie.
Thirty years after her death, I still can't let it go away.
- [LAUNDREAU.]
: Hey, Lucie.
- Hey! You wanna take that last call for the Banff Springs? OK.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: How horrific her death was.
It's horrendous.
It's tragic.
[NEWSREADER.]
: People are starting to realize that Banff is no longer the quiet, safe little place it once was.
[MORRISON.]
: I want a list of every male employee in town that matches the suspect's description.
[JOURNALIST.]
: There are police everywhere and people here are shocked.
They can't believe what happened.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: A small town with a transient population where people are moving in and out makes an investigation much more difficult.
We need to go bigger.
Something international.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Somebody knew something.
[MORRISON.]
: Let's run the DNA on this blood.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: At the end of the rainbow, there's one guy with that unique DNA that we want.
Hey! [DOUG MORRISON.]
: It's one of those cases where you'll never forget.
I'll never forget it.
- [FEMALE NEWSREADER.]
: Nestled in the Rocky Mountains, Banff has the look of a natural and tranquil paradise.
[MALE NEWSREADER.]
: Cases of violent crime are extremely rare in Banff.
Banff is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
It's serene, it's quiet.
People come from around the world to experience the mountains and the mountain life and to ski.
[FEMALE NEWSREADER.]
: Three million tourists and transients pass through Banff every year.
People here were genuinely shocked such a thing could happen in this small resort town.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: It's a very tourist type of town so to have a serious crime such as a murder in that town is very odd.
[MALE NEWSREADER.]
: Up until yesterday, that was Banff's most recent murder [DOUG MORRISON.]
: It had been thirty years since the last murder in Banff and that's why we were called in.
Originally when I heard that there had been a homicide in Banff, I assumed that it might've been as a result of a fight in a bar, certainly not that a young cab driver had uh, lost her life and was laying in the middle of the road.
The first thing that caught my attention was this yellow blanket that was laying over top of the body and uh, that is basically a no-no.
Why is there a sheet covering our victim? You are? Doug Morrison, Calgary office.
Nigel Paterson, Banff.
That's a that's an elementary school right there.
We don't want the kids seeing this.
My daughter goes there.
Well, your sheet ruined what blood spatter evidence we could've collected from the body.
[SIGHS.]
What are you thinking? I'm thinking she was stabbed.
She has cuts on her hands, defensive wounds.
She put up a fight.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Knowing the dynamics of the community, actually, I was shocked.
This is a violent, violent act done by a violent, violent person.
You find the murder weapon? No.
What about her wallet? No.
But her name's Lucie Turmel.
Local cab driver.
She was last seen picking up - a fare at 1:30 a.
m.
- Who saw her? Larry Laundreau.
Works at the same cab company.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Lucie was new to the cab industry and on that night, she was working the evening shift with Larry.
Detective Morrison, RCMP.
I understand you knew our victim.
Lucie.
Yeah, I let her take the last ride from the Springs.
Get a good luck at the passengers? [DOUG MORRISON.]
: He then told us Lucie had picked up some passengers from The Works night club, which is situated in the Banff Springs Hotel.
Larry was behind Lucie when she picked up these people and Larry was next in queue to pick up the next fare.
Later on in the early morning hours, Larry saw something uh, unusual.
[TAXI MANAGER.]
: Larry, have you seen Lucie? She's not answering her radio.
Uh, no, not since I left the Springs.
Wait, uh, hold on? Yeah, you know, I think I see her car.
How many cars you got out on the road tonight? Just you and Lucie.
OK, I call the police.
I think someone stole Lucie's car.
There's a guy driving it.
I'm gonna follow him.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Larry had told us that he had observed an unknown male driving Lucie's taxi.
He managed to turn around and give chase.
[MORRISON.]
: Was the man she picked up the same person as the man you chased? Could be, I don't know.
Where'd you chase him to? Uh, to Mountain Avenue.
It's a couple of minutes from here.
Car's still there.
I got a guy guarding it.
I'd like to see her car.
So um I stopped my car right there and I jumped out.
Hey! Hey.
Hey! And then, I chased him for a few steps but uh, then he got away.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: He was able to give us a physical description of the male that got out of that cab.
He was probably under the age of 25, around six-foot tall, dark hair, thin build and away he went.
Larry, if you wouldn't mind um, waiting by my car for a few minutes while we have a look around? Pretty good place to cut and run? Right into the woods.
Yeah, what's uh what's beyond those woods? Houses.
Maybe he lives there.
We should get our our officers canvassing the area.
Blood could be Lucie's or our killer's.
Maybe he stabbed her in the car and then chased her out.
Or maybe his hand slipped and he cut himself.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: In most crimes with a knife, the individual ends up stabbing himself or cutting himself and so he leaves a portion of his blood behind.
So maybe this is not Lucie's blood.
This may be our perpetrator's blood.
[MORRISON.]
: We should check all area hospitals, see if anyone's treated for cuts.
Let's uh, run DNA on this blood.
DNA? [DOUG MORRISON.]
: DNA largely was new to us in law enforcement.
Certainly across Canada.
And so that was all brand new to all our uniform folks, certainly in Banff.
- This is her last fare.
- Mm hm? 1:35, The Works, Banff Springs Hotel.
Drop off 600 Cougar.
Larry? You know who this is? Yeah, that's uh, Jeff, her boyfriend.
He's a waiter at the Grizzly House.
That's downtown.
They should be opening pretty soon.
- I'll go talk to him.
- No.
No.
Let's get this car impounded and into forensics.
I'll um, notify Jeff and follow up on her last fare.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Lucie was from the province of Quebec.
Jeff was an Albertan, living in Banff.
Lucie and Jeffrey ended up finding each other and they had big plans that they were going to end up getting married and staying in Banff.
[SOBBING.]
- We're getting married.
- I'm very sorry.
- We think she was robbed.
- Robbed! She only had 130 bucks! How do you know that? She told me when I saw her.
She came by here last night.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Lucie stopped by to say goodnight to him cause he was getting ready to go to bed.
she was still working her shift.
- Hey, beautiful.
- Hey! - Have you hit your magic number yet? - Mm mm.
- Where you at? - $130.
Bars are still open for another half-hour.
You can still pick up a couple more fares.
Yeah.
See ya.
Je t'aime.
I love you too.
She was trying to save up for our wedding.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: He was devastated.
Obviously, he loved the girl.
At first, he couldn't believe because he'd just seen her.
And then uh, he broke down.
The tragedy of a young womans murder has had consequences for virtually everyone who lives here.
Lucie was a very pleasant girl, she was always happy.
She uh, had a very positive attitude about life.
What happened was devastating.
Seeing her laying out there and stuff it just it gets you thinking.
[FEMALE JOURNALIST.]
: Lucie Turmel picked up her last fare at The Works, a night club in the Banff Springs Hotel.
[MALE JOURNALIST.]
: Police say it's critical that they find three people who got into Lucie's taxi here at the Banff Springs Hotel Works night club ABOUT 1:30 Thursday morning.
The three were Lucie's last fare.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We went to The Work night club and spoke with a number of employees that were working Can I help you? Can I help you? Yeah, Doug Morrison, RCMP.
You heard about the cabbie who was killed Lucie Turmel? [DOUG MORRISON.]
: We also spoke with the manager.
She would've left with a man and two women.
Would've called a cab around 1:15, 1:30? I'm sorry.
It was payday for seasonals, so shoulder-to-shoulder all night.
All right.
All right.
Can you get me a list of all your employees that were working here last night? As well as anyone else you remember.
- Of course.
- Thank you.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We weren't able to substantiate any of these people leaving The Works that night.
Looking at her log book, we know that Lucie took those fares from The Works in Banff Springs Hotel to an address on Cougar Street.
We went to Cougar.
On the night of Lucie's death, there was a house party on Cougar Street that went till the wee hours of the morning.
Hi! Big party last night.
Doug Morrison, RCMP.
Lucie Turmel.
She would've dropped off a man and two women here last night around 1:45 in the morning? I'm sorry, it was a big party.
Yeah? For who? Just friends.
Mostly people I work with.
Was anyone injured? Maybe cuts on the hand, anything like that? No.
Listen, I'm gonna need you and your roommates to come to the station and help us figure out who was at your party, all right? Sure, I'll let them know.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We'd spent a lot of time trying to track down who those passengers were.
In fact, we canvassed that whole street and without any luck at all.
Lucie's last drop-off was on Cougar.
But her body was found a half-hour later only two blocks away.
Was she called out again? I can check that.
No.
That was her last fare.
Is it possible she picked up a fare without calling it in? Maybe, you know, making a little extra cash on the side? Sure.
It's part of the business.
I don't like it.
But it happens.
So it's possible we don't know when or where her last fare was.
No.
It's small fares, small town.
Those things slip through the cracks.
Thank you.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: It's certainly possible that Lucie saw this individual and knew this individual, the guy was standing on the street corner and she pulled up and he says "Hey, can you give me a ride home?" She picked him up and he ended up being her killer.
[MALE JOURNALIST.]
: At least fifteen Mounties and a dozen park rangers are now checking every lead.
The Mounties won't say whether the victim was sexually assaulted or how she died until an autopsy is done tomorrow.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: At this point, none of the information that was provided to us in those early morning hours we could substantiate.
And so that was a mystery.
Who would want to kill this young lady in the middle of the street.
We had no idea.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: A lot of the locals in Banff were fearful.
Somebody's been killed in the middle of a bloody street with a knife.
Who's next? I'm quite shocked about it all.
In fact, I'm even a little bit concerned about myself being out walking around in the evenings.
People are probably starting to realize, you know, that there's crime here, just like the city.
It's not something that you expect here.
[MALE JOURNALIST.]
: People here are realizing that their town is no longer as quiet, peaceful and safe as it used to be.
As police hunt for a killer, many people here are for the first time locking their doors at night.
The autopsy report came back.
No sexual assault.
She was stabbed seventeen times in the face and neck.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: To exhibit that much rage on another human being, this guy is one dangerous guy.
We contact Lucie's family in Quebec? Yeah.
They took it pretty hard.
They want her body flown back for the funeral.
Of course.
Can they think of any reason why anyone would want to do something like this? No.
She was a pretty popular girl back home.
Well-liked.
Popular here, too.
From all the information that I gathered from all of her friends, she was a free-spirit, she was going out to experience Banff and she would do jobs that other women probably wouldn't do and that's certainly driving a cab and driving a cab at night.
[MALE JOURNALIST.]
: The search goes on.
Dozens of Mounties and park rangers combing the outskirts of Banff, looking for clues that'll lead them to the kille.
At least one witness saw a young man run into the trees ABOUT 2:00 yesterday morning after skidding to a stop on Mountain Avenue in this taxi.
Now we're looking for one individual in a town site of probably at that time, maybe 2,000 males that fit that profile of that guy jumping out of the cab and running into the bush.
Thanks.
Just got a tip about some French-Canadian guy named Luc Benoit.
Apparently, he was seen getting drunk and threatening people at a bar the night Lucie was killed.
Says he was threatening people with a big knife strapped to his boot.
Let's bring him in.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: The staff at a bar were concerned that they had an individual in there that was intoxicated.
He was waving a knife around.
And so this individual was picked up and brought back to the detachment.
And although he's a little bit older than twenty-five, he did fit that physical description that Larry in the taxicab gave us.
Benoit's here.
Found him sleeping in his car.
Did he say anything? Just that he's looking for work.
Spent his last couple of bucks on a two-four.
Broke and desperate.
That's never a good mix.
What about the knife? Claims he lost it.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: When he was sobered up the next morning, I started to interview him.
You know why we brought you here? Some fight.
No, it wasn't just some fight.
You were threatening people with a knife.
Where's that knife, Luc? Je sais pas.
I lost it.
You lost it.
What about Lucie? Who? Lucie Turmel.
Come on.
You remember Lucie.
She's a nice girl, pretty, Quebecois, just like you.
She was driving a cab the same night that you were running around threatening people with that knife you lost.
Well, someone killed Lucie.
They stabbed her to death with a knife.
Ãa pourrait être moi.
What was that? I think I killed her.
I did it.
Just like that, this guy confessed.
So we've got a person that was in Banff, he had a knife and he admitted that he had killed Lucie Turmel, but couldn't recall any of the details.
He thought he might have killed her.
And then we got a call.
This neighbor, in the general vicinity, had found a knife and it was covered in blood.
Homeowner found a knife in their driveway.
Fancy blade.
Mahogany handle.
Looks home-made.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: But there it was.
A blood-covered hunting knife.
This is the knife that maybe killed Lucie Turmel.
Maybe the killer threw it here after he ditched the car.
Let's have forensics pick it up.
Maybe they can pull a print or some DNA off of it.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: The blood is the most critical thing that we've got.
We got that in the cab.
We know that the guy got out of the cab and ran away.
And we've got a large bloodied hunting knife.
Hey, you want the bad news first? Don't tell me.
All the blood in the cab was Lucie's.
No.
We actually found three spots in there with the killer's blood.
It just wasn't - Luc Benoit's.
- What? Yeah, sorry.
It's not your guy.
No match.
Didn't make any sense.
But you get one of these guys, not in every homicide, but you get one or two of them that will admit something, when in fact, they're not responsible.
No one else in the system matches the blood either.
Oh, some good news, though.
The knife that was recovered? It is the murder weapon.
It's got Lucie's blood all over it.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: So we had the knife that killed Lucie Turmel and the blood that was found both on the steering wheel, on the uh, signal light indicator, were not Lucie Turmel's blood.
They were obviously our perpetrator's blood.
So we find a match you find your killer.
Simple as that.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: And now the work begins to figure out who left that blood.
[FEMALE JOURNALIST.]
: Banff survives on tourism and an unsolved murder isn't good for business.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Tourist season was gearing up in the Banff area and there was pressure there to solve the thing and solve it quickly.
[MORRISON.]
: I want a list of every male employee in town that matches the suspect's description.
Every restaurant, hotel, night club, whatever.
- That's thousands of people.
- Just get the list and we'll whittle it down to just those with a criminal record.
This is a brutal crime.
I doubt it was his first.
This guy is above and beyond the normal bad guy.
It was an investigator's nightmare so to speak.
A small town with a transient population where people are moving in and out makes an investigation much more difficult in tracking people and locating people.
It's been three months now and we haven't caught the individual responsible for Lucie Turmel's death.
So now we have to widen the scope of our investigation.
It is one of those needles in a haystack.
What's this? Every white male temp worker in Banff with a criminal record.
All of this? Apparently, Banff is a little more dangerous than we thought.
Seventy percent of workers here have criminal records.
- National average? Ten percent.
- What? OK.
Well, we need to trim this.
I want you to pull hospital records, see if you can find blood types for these people.
Blood type doesn't match, the DNA won't either.
And most of them won't have their blood type on file at the local hospital.
They're temp workers.
Then we'll get blood samples from the rest.
And if they say no? Can we pull a warrant? No such thing as a warrant for blood.
They say no? We take a closer look.
Alright.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: If you had a criminal record for dangerous driving or for possession of marijuana, does that necessarily mean that you're gonna be a violent criminal? And you're gonna be killing people? No.
People with violent crimes or violent history are very interesting.
So we have to work very quickly to round these people up and hopefully to get samples of uh, their DNA.
You know, once you explain the nature of the investigation and what we were doing, most fellas cooperated.
"I knew her, but I'm not responsible.
I'll give you any sample you want.
" So we're working our way through all of these names and stuff.
And at the end of the rainbow, there's one guy with that unique DNA that we want.
These guys are the last of the blood tests.
- Then we're done with the list? - Uh huh.
That's it.
Nothing so far.
Nothing matches the blood we found in the cab.
No.
Looks like we hit a dead end.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: All of those samples that were sent to the lab came back negative.
Forget the list.
I want to know where everyone was that night.
The whole town.
Every tourist, every citizen, every worker.
I want everyone placed.
We need to find new suspects.
Doug.
Hundreds of people come in and out of Banff every day.
Tourists.
They could be all over the world.
[SIGHS.]
I'm gonna get the guest registry from every hotel in town.
Track them down.
We'll find out where everyone was and if they saw or heard anything strange.
We find any new suspects, we'll test their blood too.
We had never done this kind of thing before, but you don't wanna leave any stone unturned.
[SIGHS.]
We need to go bigger.
Something international.
Someone out there knows what happened to Lucie Turmel.
We need to bring the story to them.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We have an enormous job ahead of us.
Banff is a major tourist town in Canada.
And people come and go left, right and center.
So we had to expand our investigation.
Letters in various languages were sent probably to fifty nations around the world.
Anybody that actually stayed in Banff during that time when Lucie lost her life, was contacted by a letter from the Banff detachment.
[FEMALE JOURNALIST.]
: The RCMP has opened hundreds of files and sent questionnaires to the thousands of people who were in Banff that night.
We've had approximately 600 tips from across Canada, North America and even in France.
This is where Lucie Turmel's body was found.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We also did a massive media blitz.
[FEMALE JOURNALIST.]
: A reward is being offered to anyone who can help solve the murder.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Somebody knows something, tell us what you recall.
Public solves the crime.
You gotta keep it in the papers, you gotta keep it front and center in everybody's mind till finally that person says "Ah, no, I should phone the police and tell them about that.
" Please.
I came in cause I saw this.
Did you know Lucie? No.
But I know this knife.
You've seen it? It belongs to this guy I used to party with.
Ryan Love.
He used to work at the Banff Springs Hotel.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: In the end, the answer was in Banff.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We caught a break.
This lady saw this poster, came forward and told us "I know a guy that had a knife exactly like that.
" Now we're starting to link that knife to somebody that actually was in Banff during that period.
Here we go.
Here we go.
Ryan Love.
Worked at the Banff Springs Hotel.
No record? No, we would've had a blood sample.
Did we speak with him? Never had a chance.
His roommate said he left town before the murder.
OK, I want the time sheets from the Banff Springs Hotel.
Yeah, I saw those a second ago.
Hang on.
Here we go.
Ryan Love.
Yeah.
It's got his address in Duncan, BC.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Ryan Love worked in Banff, fit the age, fit the physical description.
He had a knife very similar to the murder weapon.
So he was a person of interest.
[KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK.]
Can I help you? Doug Morrison, RCMP Staff Sergeant.
Is there something wrong? I'm looking for Ryan Love.
I'm sorry, what's this about? I'd just like to have a few words with your son, Sir.
About what? It's all right, Dad.
I'm sure it's nothing.
May I come in? [DOUG MORRISON.]
: Ryan Love? He's back home living with his parents.
Probably had maybe a half an hour at length talk and I said Ryan's name has surfaced in our investigation and we would like Ryan's cooperation.
You recognize this? Sure.
That's my knife.
You sure? I'm positive.
You see that mark right there? That's from jumping a car battery.
What happened there? Oh, this? I don't even remember.
Where'd you find my knife? Banff.
It was used to murder someone.
Oh, my God! Huh.
I didn't know what happened to it.
I tell you it was used to murder someone and and all you can say is that you don't know what happened to it? Look, Detective, he already told you he doesn't know.
Obviously, someone took it.
Why obviously? Because it means too much to me.
You see, my grandfather bought it for me when I was fourteen.
Over down in Mexico, remember? I wouldn't just give it away.
It was stolen.
In Banff.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Yeah, that knife was stolen from me at a party blah blah blah.
Or it went missing or whatever the case might be.
And that was his way of diffusing "well, I don't have the knife anymore so" Um, that'd be that.
When did you leave Banff? Uh, early May, last year.
So you were still there May 17th.
Wasn't that Grandma's birthday? Yeah, I was on a plane on the way to Thunder Bay, Ontario for a family reunion.
That's right, I remember.
We bought him a plane ticket and sent him $100 to take a cab to the airport.
Right.
Yeah.
Then I went back to Banff, stayed a few more days and uh, came home for good.
And what time did you leave Banff on May 17th? I don't know.
Early, I guess.
It was a long time ago.
So you were there the night before.
This feels like it's getting into tricky lawyer questions.
I'm sorry, Detective.
I think we'd like to speak to our lawyer before we take this any further.
I didn't murder anyone.
I just need a quick sample of your blood and I will be on my way.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: It's very simple.
I mean, just provide us with a sample.
We'll take the sample.
We'll go away.
We'll get it analyzed.
And if he's not responsible, he'll never see us again.
Mmmm, no.
I don't think so.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We were stymied.
Basically, he thought "Well, if I never provide a sample, they'll never catch me.
" Back then, there was no mechanism in Canadian law that would allow us to get body fluids from the suspect.
We couldn't go to the courts and say "This is all the evidence that we have.
Would you sign a search warrant so that we can go back and get these samples physically from Ryan Jason Love?" [PATERSON.]
: And we definitely can't get a warrant for his DNA? [MORRISON.]
: Nope.
There is no warrant system in place for DNA.
Need someone to get it off him voluntarily.
So what are we gonna do? We need someone to go undercover.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We decided to go ahead with an undercover operation.
So I put in a call to my good friend, Al Haslett.
Al's probably one of the best policemen I ever met.
He could walk into a bar and within ten minutes, be playing pool with the bad guy that we'd all been trying to get close to.
Ryan Love.
Yeah, I know him.
Hangs with the guys we've been watching.
A bunch of local low-lifes.
We got eyes on the whole crew.
I bet if we open the door for him, he'll just jump right in.
That's OK with you? Whatever gets the bad guys.
Yeah? All right! See ya.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We needed to get a DNA sample from Ryan Jason Love.
And that was our goal in that undercover operation.
The plan was pretty simple.
On the pretext that our undercover operator was a small-time crook, we would have Ryan Jason Love participate in these petty crimes that we're gonna rob a fishboat.
Love would be given some menial task so we could get close to him.
This is the pier? Yeah.
All you gotta do is keep a lookout.
You see that boat coming, you flash the signal.
And when the boat gets there? And the rest of us roll up, we unload the smokes, then we go make some money.
- [COUGHING.]
- [KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK.]
Who's that? I didn't Relax.
I just ordered some room service, that's all.
But I'm not hungry.
Who said anything about food? We didn't have a mechanism to get body fluids from an accused.
So we set up an undercover operation where Ryan Jason Love would unknowingly provide us with a DNA sample that we could match with the blood in the taxi that was driven by Lucie Turmel.
[KIM.]
: You have this one cowlick that I can't get down.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know.
No matter what I do, it just sticks up like that.
Come on man, that's easy fix.
Your dad will teach you.
We're gonna find your natural part.
- Oh! - Ow man! [LAUGHING.]
See? No need to worry about it now.
All right.
You got me.
OK! We got an early morning.
Call it.
Ladies? Wait, I thought we were gonna Oh, you thought you thought these girls were for you? [LAUGHING.]
Sorry, man, I got my own thing going on.
Besides, you gotta get your sleep, huh? Let's go.
[LAUGHING.]
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: The girls were with us.
They were undercover RCMP officers.
The pulled hair was very clever, but we were uncertain that that evidence would hold up in court.
The act of reaching across and physically removing hair from a person's head, the courts may look on that as an infringement on his constitutional rights and that evidence may get kicked out and not allowed as evidence proper in his trial.
We wanted to make sure that if that sample got kicked out, then we had another sample to back it up.
So the day before, we stripped down his motel room and put in pornography magazines.
We had switched all the sheets, put brand new sheets on.
We're trying to get him sexually excited so that when the girls then leave Wait, I thought we were gonna [DOUG MORRISON.]
: he sexually relieves himself onto the sheets that we put on the beds.
That's uh, not exactly what happened.
Next morning, we went back into the room and checked the sheets.
No hair.
No stains on the sheets.
Damn it.
Hang on a second.
Is that what I think it is? [DOUG MORRISON.]
: We found nothing, other than the tissue, which was the most important item that we found.
We get the samples of the mucous and the hair in analyze and we knew if we matched his DNA, we had our killer.
We got him! [DOUG MORRISON.]
: Ryan Jason Love's DNA sample matched the DNA sample that we got out of Lucie Turmel's cab.
We had found our man.
Nigel Paterson and myself, we go back out to Duncan to make the arrest of Ryan Jason Love.
You know, no matter what we said to him that we have your samples of your DNA and stuff like that and it's matched the blood in the cab and stuff, so we know you're the person responsible, it was just kinda like pfff right over top of his head.
[FEMALE JOURNALIST.]
: Dozens of RCMP investigators have waited a long time for this day to come.
It took two-and-a-half years, but police finally arrested twenty-one-year-old Ryan Love in Duncan, British Columbia.
They've interviewed more than five thousand people in an effort to make an arrest.
Today, they arrived at the airport with the man, they believe, killed Lucie Turmel.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Love smirked throughout the arrest.
I think he still felt that, with the help of his lawyer, he was going to be able to escape the grasps of prison.
[MALE JOURNALIST.]
: Last May, a preliminary hearing found there was enough evidence to put Love on trial [FEMALE JOURNALIST.]
: The Crown and Defence argued over the way undercover policemen collected samples of Ryan Love's hair and mucous.
Both samples were tested and linked Love to the crime scene.
The hair was plucked from Love's head after he complained of having a cowlick.
In court Love's lawyer insisted police had no legal right to take the sample and argued his client's rights were violated.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: In the end, the DNA evidence was admitted.
Love lost.
He was given a life sentence with no possibility for parole until after twenty years.
Although we are elated, it's hard to fathom that someone would uh, exhibit that much rage.
For what? Money? [MORRISON.]
: Why'd you do it? I needed cash.
To get to the family reunion.
You had money.
Your parents gave you money.
I spent it all.
On booze and drugs.
[COUGHS.]
So you killed an innocent girl, a girl who had her whole life ahead of her for a hundred bucks? My parents would've been so pissed if I missed that plane.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: You never get over an incident like that.
It uh, basically stays with you for the rest of your life.
It was sad for uh, the parents, obviously, her friends even the townfolk.
It represents one of the more intensive cases certainly in Alberta history I would say.
If it weren't for the assistance that we received from police forces and other RCMP detachments in every province and territory in the country, we wouldn't have been able to conduct a successful investigation.
We are satisfied, but it's very hard too.
Something somebody has killed our daughter and it's hard.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: The Turmels were very appreciative.
Yeah.
Did our job.
The funeral was huge.
I think everybody that worked in the same industries as Lucie and Jeff were there.
Most of the people that were associated at all with Lucie loved the girl.
She was a she was a from all indications, just a neat, a neat kid.
Thirty years after her death, I still can't let it go away.
- [LAUNDREAU.]
: Hey, Lucie.
- Hey! You wanna take that last call for the Banff Springs? OK.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: How horrific her death was.
It's horrendous.
It's tragic.
[NEWSREADER.]
: People are starting to realize that Banff is no longer the quiet, safe little place it once was.
[MORRISON.]
: I want a list of every male employee in town that matches the suspect's description.
[JOURNALIST.]
: There are police everywhere and people here are shocked.
They can't believe what happened.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: A small town with a transient population where people are moving in and out makes an investigation much more difficult.
We need to go bigger.
Something international.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Somebody knew something.
[MORRISON.]
: Let's run the DNA on this blood.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: At the end of the rainbow, there's one guy with that unique DNA that we want.
Hey! [DOUG MORRISON.]
: It's one of those cases where you'll never forget.
I'll never forget it.
- [FEMALE NEWSREADER.]
: Nestled in the Rocky Mountains, Banff has the look of a natural and tranquil paradise.
[MALE NEWSREADER.]
: Cases of violent crime are extremely rare in Banff.
Banff is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
It's serene, it's quiet.
People come from around the world to experience the mountains and the mountain life and to ski.
[FEMALE NEWSREADER.]
: Three million tourists and transients pass through Banff every year.
People here were genuinely shocked such a thing could happen in this small resort town.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: It's a very tourist type of town so to have a serious crime such as a murder in that town is very odd.
[MALE NEWSREADER.]
: Up until yesterday, that was Banff's most recent murder [DOUG MORRISON.]
: It had been thirty years since the last murder in Banff and that's why we were called in.
Originally when I heard that there had been a homicide in Banff, I assumed that it might've been as a result of a fight in a bar, certainly not that a young cab driver had uh, lost her life and was laying in the middle of the road.
The first thing that caught my attention was this yellow blanket that was laying over top of the body and uh, that is basically a no-no.
Why is there a sheet covering our victim? You are? Doug Morrison, Calgary office.
Nigel Paterson, Banff.
That's a that's an elementary school right there.
We don't want the kids seeing this.
My daughter goes there.
Well, your sheet ruined what blood spatter evidence we could've collected from the body.
[SIGHS.]
What are you thinking? I'm thinking she was stabbed.
She has cuts on her hands, defensive wounds.
She put up a fight.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Knowing the dynamics of the community, actually, I was shocked.
This is a violent, violent act done by a violent, violent person.
You find the murder weapon? No.
What about her wallet? No.
But her name's Lucie Turmel.
Local cab driver.
She was last seen picking up - a fare at 1:30 a.
m.
- Who saw her? Larry Laundreau.
Works at the same cab company.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Lucie was new to the cab industry and on that night, she was working the evening shift with Larry.
Detective Morrison, RCMP.
I understand you knew our victim.
Lucie.
Yeah, I let her take the last ride from the Springs.
Get a good luck at the passengers? [DOUG MORRISON.]
: He then told us Lucie had picked up some passengers from The Works night club, which is situated in the Banff Springs Hotel.
Larry was behind Lucie when she picked up these people and Larry was next in queue to pick up the next fare.
Later on in the early morning hours, Larry saw something uh, unusual.
[TAXI MANAGER.]
: Larry, have you seen Lucie? She's not answering her radio.
Uh, no, not since I left the Springs.
Wait, uh, hold on? Yeah, you know, I think I see her car.
How many cars you got out on the road tonight? Just you and Lucie.
OK, I call the police.
I think someone stole Lucie's car.
There's a guy driving it.
I'm gonna follow him.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Larry had told us that he had observed an unknown male driving Lucie's taxi.
He managed to turn around and give chase.
[MORRISON.]
: Was the man she picked up the same person as the man you chased? Could be, I don't know.
Where'd you chase him to? Uh, to Mountain Avenue.
It's a couple of minutes from here.
Car's still there.
I got a guy guarding it.
I'd like to see her car.
So um I stopped my car right there and I jumped out.
Hey! Hey.
Hey! And then, I chased him for a few steps but uh, then he got away.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: He was able to give us a physical description of the male that got out of that cab.
He was probably under the age of 25, around six-foot tall, dark hair, thin build and away he went.
Larry, if you wouldn't mind um, waiting by my car for a few minutes while we have a look around? Pretty good place to cut and run? Right into the woods.
Yeah, what's uh what's beyond those woods? Houses.
Maybe he lives there.
We should get our our officers canvassing the area.
Blood could be Lucie's or our killer's.
Maybe he stabbed her in the car and then chased her out.
Or maybe his hand slipped and he cut himself.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: In most crimes with a knife, the individual ends up stabbing himself or cutting himself and so he leaves a portion of his blood behind.
So maybe this is not Lucie's blood.
This may be our perpetrator's blood.
[MORRISON.]
: We should check all area hospitals, see if anyone's treated for cuts.
Let's uh, run DNA on this blood.
DNA? [DOUG MORRISON.]
: DNA largely was new to us in law enforcement.
Certainly across Canada.
And so that was all brand new to all our uniform folks, certainly in Banff.
- This is her last fare.
- Mm hm? 1:35, The Works, Banff Springs Hotel.
Drop off 600 Cougar.
Larry? You know who this is? Yeah, that's uh, Jeff, her boyfriend.
He's a waiter at the Grizzly House.
That's downtown.
They should be opening pretty soon.
- I'll go talk to him.
- No.
No.
Let's get this car impounded and into forensics.
I'll um, notify Jeff and follow up on her last fare.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Lucie was from the province of Quebec.
Jeff was an Albertan, living in Banff.
Lucie and Jeffrey ended up finding each other and they had big plans that they were going to end up getting married and staying in Banff.
[SOBBING.]
- We're getting married.
- I'm very sorry.
- We think she was robbed.
- Robbed! She only had 130 bucks! How do you know that? She told me when I saw her.
She came by here last night.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Lucie stopped by to say goodnight to him cause he was getting ready to go to bed.
she was still working her shift.
- Hey, beautiful.
- Hey! - Have you hit your magic number yet? - Mm mm.
- Where you at? - $130.
Bars are still open for another half-hour.
You can still pick up a couple more fares.
Yeah.
See ya.
Je t'aime.
I love you too.
She was trying to save up for our wedding.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: He was devastated.
Obviously, he loved the girl.
At first, he couldn't believe because he'd just seen her.
And then uh, he broke down.
The tragedy of a young womans murder has had consequences for virtually everyone who lives here.
Lucie was a very pleasant girl, she was always happy.
She uh, had a very positive attitude about life.
What happened was devastating.
Seeing her laying out there and stuff it just it gets you thinking.
[FEMALE JOURNALIST.]
: Lucie Turmel picked up her last fare at The Works, a night club in the Banff Springs Hotel.
[MALE JOURNALIST.]
: Police say it's critical that they find three people who got into Lucie's taxi here at the Banff Springs Hotel Works night club ABOUT 1:30 Thursday morning.
The three were Lucie's last fare.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We went to The Work night club and spoke with a number of employees that were working Can I help you? Can I help you? Yeah, Doug Morrison, RCMP.
You heard about the cabbie who was killed Lucie Turmel? [DOUG MORRISON.]
: We also spoke with the manager.
She would've left with a man and two women.
Would've called a cab around 1:15, 1:30? I'm sorry.
It was payday for seasonals, so shoulder-to-shoulder all night.
All right.
All right.
Can you get me a list of all your employees that were working here last night? As well as anyone else you remember.
- Of course.
- Thank you.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We weren't able to substantiate any of these people leaving The Works that night.
Looking at her log book, we know that Lucie took those fares from The Works in Banff Springs Hotel to an address on Cougar Street.
We went to Cougar.
On the night of Lucie's death, there was a house party on Cougar Street that went till the wee hours of the morning.
Hi! Big party last night.
Doug Morrison, RCMP.
Lucie Turmel.
She would've dropped off a man and two women here last night around 1:45 in the morning? I'm sorry, it was a big party.
Yeah? For who? Just friends.
Mostly people I work with.
Was anyone injured? Maybe cuts on the hand, anything like that? No.
Listen, I'm gonna need you and your roommates to come to the station and help us figure out who was at your party, all right? Sure, I'll let them know.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We'd spent a lot of time trying to track down who those passengers were.
In fact, we canvassed that whole street and without any luck at all.
Lucie's last drop-off was on Cougar.
But her body was found a half-hour later only two blocks away.
Was she called out again? I can check that.
No.
That was her last fare.
Is it possible she picked up a fare without calling it in? Maybe, you know, making a little extra cash on the side? Sure.
It's part of the business.
I don't like it.
But it happens.
So it's possible we don't know when or where her last fare was.
No.
It's small fares, small town.
Those things slip through the cracks.
Thank you.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: It's certainly possible that Lucie saw this individual and knew this individual, the guy was standing on the street corner and she pulled up and he says "Hey, can you give me a ride home?" She picked him up and he ended up being her killer.
[MALE JOURNALIST.]
: At least fifteen Mounties and a dozen park rangers are now checking every lead.
The Mounties won't say whether the victim was sexually assaulted or how she died until an autopsy is done tomorrow.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: At this point, none of the information that was provided to us in those early morning hours we could substantiate.
And so that was a mystery.
Who would want to kill this young lady in the middle of the street.
We had no idea.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: A lot of the locals in Banff were fearful.
Somebody's been killed in the middle of a bloody street with a knife.
Who's next? I'm quite shocked about it all.
In fact, I'm even a little bit concerned about myself being out walking around in the evenings.
People are probably starting to realize, you know, that there's crime here, just like the city.
It's not something that you expect here.
[MALE JOURNALIST.]
: People here are realizing that their town is no longer as quiet, peaceful and safe as it used to be.
As police hunt for a killer, many people here are for the first time locking their doors at night.
The autopsy report came back.
No sexual assault.
She was stabbed seventeen times in the face and neck.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: To exhibit that much rage on another human being, this guy is one dangerous guy.
We contact Lucie's family in Quebec? Yeah.
They took it pretty hard.
They want her body flown back for the funeral.
Of course.
Can they think of any reason why anyone would want to do something like this? No.
She was a pretty popular girl back home.
Well-liked.
Popular here, too.
From all the information that I gathered from all of her friends, she was a free-spirit, she was going out to experience Banff and she would do jobs that other women probably wouldn't do and that's certainly driving a cab and driving a cab at night.
[MALE JOURNALIST.]
: The search goes on.
Dozens of Mounties and park rangers combing the outskirts of Banff, looking for clues that'll lead them to the kille.
At least one witness saw a young man run into the trees ABOUT 2:00 yesterday morning after skidding to a stop on Mountain Avenue in this taxi.
Now we're looking for one individual in a town site of probably at that time, maybe 2,000 males that fit that profile of that guy jumping out of the cab and running into the bush.
Thanks.
Just got a tip about some French-Canadian guy named Luc Benoit.
Apparently, he was seen getting drunk and threatening people at a bar the night Lucie was killed.
Says he was threatening people with a big knife strapped to his boot.
Let's bring him in.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: The staff at a bar were concerned that they had an individual in there that was intoxicated.
He was waving a knife around.
And so this individual was picked up and brought back to the detachment.
And although he's a little bit older than twenty-five, he did fit that physical description that Larry in the taxicab gave us.
Benoit's here.
Found him sleeping in his car.
Did he say anything? Just that he's looking for work.
Spent his last couple of bucks on a two-four.
Broke and desperate.
That's never a good mix.
What about the knife? Claims he lost it.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: When he was sobered up the next morning, I started to interview him.
You know why we brought you here? Some fight.
No, it wasn't just some fight.
You were threatening people with a knife.
Where's that knife, Luc? Je sais pas.
I lost it.
You lost it.
What about Lucie? Who? Lucie Turmel.
Come on.
You remember Lucie.
She's a nice girl, pretty, Quebecois, just like you.
She was driving a cab the same night that you were running around threatening people with that knife you lost.
Well, someone killed Lucie.
They stabbed her to death with a knife.
Ãa pourrait être moi.
What was that? I think I killed her.
I did it.
Just like that, this guy confessed.
So we've got a person that was in Banff, he had a knife and he admitted that he had killed Lucie Turmel, but couldn't recall any of the details.
He thought he might have killed her.
And then we got a call.
This neighbor, in the general vicinity, had found a knife and it was covered in blood.
Homeowner found a knife in their driveway.
Fancy blade.
Mahogany handle.
Looks home-made.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: But there it was.
A blood-covered hunting knife.
This is the knife that maybe killed Lucie Turmel.
Maybe the killer threw it here after he ditched the car.
Let's have forensics pick it up.
Maybe they can pull a print or some DNA off of it.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: The blood is the most critical thing that we've got.
We got that in the cab.
We know that the guy got out of the cab and ran away.
And we've got a large bloodied hunting knife.
Hey, you want the bad news first? Don't tell me.
All the blood in the cab was Lucie's.
No.
We actually found three spots in there with the killer's blood.
It just wasn't - Luc Benoit's.
- What? Yeah, sorry.
It's not your guy.
No match.
Didn't make any sense.
But you get one of these guys, not in every homicide, but you get one or two of them that will admit something, when in fact, they're not responsible.
No one else in the system matches the blood either.
Oh, some good news, though.
The knife that was recovered? It is the murder weapon.
It's got Lucie's blood all over it.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: So we had the knife that killed Lucie Turmel and the blood that was found both on the steering wheel, on the uh, signal light indicator, were not Lucie Turmel's blood.
They were obviously our perpetrator's blood.
So we find a match you find your killer.
Simple as that.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: And now the work begins to figure out who left that blood.
[FEMALE JOURNALIST.]
: Banff survives on tourism and an unsolved murder isn't good for business.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Tourist season was gearing up in the Banff area and there was pressure there to solve the thing and solve it quickly.
[MORRISON.]
: I want a list of every male employee in town that matches the suspect's description.
Every restaurant, hotel, night club, whatever.
- That's thousands of people.
- Just get the list and we'll whittle it down to just those with a criminal record.
This is a brutal crime.
I doubt it was his first.
This guy is above and beyond the normal bad guy.
It was an investigator's nightmare so to speak.
A small town with a transient population where people are moving in and out makes an investigation much more difficult in tracking people and locating people.
It's been three months now and we haven't caught the individual responsible for Lucie Turmel's death.
So now we have to widen the scope of our investigation.
It is one of those needles in a haystack.
What's this? Every white male temp worker in Banff with a criminal record.
All of this? Apparently, Banff is a little more dangerous than we thought.
Seventy percent of workers here have criminal records.
- National average? Ten percent.
- What? OK.
Well, we need to trim this.
I want you to pull hospital records, see if you can find blood types for these people.
Blood type doesn't match, the DNA won't either.
And most of them won't have their blood type on file at the local hospital.
They're temp workers.
Then we'll get blood samples from the rest.
And if they say no? Can we pull a warrant? No such thing as a warrant for blood.
They say no? We take a closer look.
Alright.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: If you had a criminal record for dangerous driving or for possession of marijuana, does that necessarily mean that you're gonna be a violent criminal? And you're gonna be killing people? No.
People with violent crimes or violent history are very interesting.
So we have to work very quickly to round these people up and hopefully to get samples of uh, their DNA.
You know, once you explain the nature of the investigation and what we were doing, most fellas cooperated.
"I knew her, but I'm not responsible.
I'll give you any sample you want.
" So we're working our way through all of these names and stuff.
And at the end of the rainbow, there's one guy with that unique DNA that we want.
These guys are the last of the blood tests.
- Then we're done with the list? - Uh huh.
That's it.
Nothing so far.
Nothing matches the blood we found in the cab.
No.
Looks like we hit a dead end.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: All of those samples that were sent to the lab came back negative.
Forget the list.
I want to know where everyone was that night.
The whole town.
Every tourist, every citizen, every worker.
I want everyone placed.
We need to find new suspects.
Doug.
Hundreds of people come in and out of Banff every day.
Tourists.
They could be all over the world.
[SIGHS.]
I'm gonna get the guest registry from every hotel in town.
Track them down.
We'll find out where everyone was and if they saw or heard anything strange.
We find any new suspects, we'll test their blood too.
We had never done this kind of thing before, but you don't wanna leave any stone unturned.
[SIGHS.]
We need to go bigger.
Something international.
Someone out there knows what happened to Lucie Turmel.
We need to bring the story to them.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We have an enormous job ahead of us.
Banff is a major tourist town in Canada.
And people come and go left, right and center.
So we had to expand our investigation.
Letters in various languages were sent probably to fifty nations around the world.
Anybody that actually stayed in Banff during that time when Lucie lost her life, was contacted by a letter from the Banff detachment.
[FEMALE JOURNALIST.]
: The RCMP has opened hundreds of files and sent questionnaires to the thousands of people who were in Banff that night.
We've had approximately 600 tips from across Canada, North America and even in France.
This is where Lucie Turmel's body was found.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We also did a massive media blitz.
[FEMALE JOURNALIST.]
: A reward is being offered to anyone who can help solve the murder.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Somebody knows something, tell us what you recall.
Public solves the crime.
You gotta keep it in the papers, you gotta keep it front and center in everybody's mind till finally that person says "Ah, no, I should phone the police and tell them about that.
" Please.
I came in cause I saw this.
Did you know Lucie? No.
But I know this knife.
You've seen it? It belongs to this guy I used to party with.
Ryan Love.
He used to work at the Banff Springs Hotel.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: In the end, the answer was in Banff.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We caught a break.
This lady saw this poster, came forward and told us "I know a guy that had a knife exactly like that.
" Now we're starting to link that knife to somebody that actually was in Banff during that period.
Here we go.
Here we go.
Ryan Love.
Worked at the Banff Springs Hotel.
No record? No, we would've had a blood sample.
Did we speak with him? Never had a chance.
His roommate said he left town before the murder.
OK, I want the time sheets from the Banff Springs Hotel.
Yeah, I saw those a second ago.
Hang on.
Here we go.
Ryan Love.
Yeah.
It's got his address in Duncan, BC.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Ryan Love worked in Banff, fit the age, fit the physical description.
He had a knife very similar to the murder weapon.
So he was a person of interest.
[KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK.]
Can I help you? Doug Morrison, RCMP Staff Sergeant.
Is there something wrong? I'm looking for Ryan Love.
I'm sorry, what's this about? I'd just like to have a few words with your son, Sir.
About what? It's all right, Dad.
I'm sure it's nothing.
May I come in? [DOUG MORRISON.]
: Ryan Love? He's back home living with his parents.
Probably had maybe a half an hour at length talk and I said Ryan's name has surfaced in our investigation and we would like Ryan's cooperation.
You recognize this? Sure.
That's my knife.
You sure? I'm positive.
You see that mark right there? That's from jumping a car battery.
What happened there? Oh, this? I don't even remember.
Where'd you find my knife? Banff.
It was used to murder someone.
Oh, my God! Huh.
I didn't know what happened to it.
I tell you it was used to murder someone and and all you can say is that you don't know what happened to it? Look, Detective, he already told you he doesn't know.
Obviously, someone took it.
Why obviously? Because it means too much to me.
You see, my grandfather bought it for me when I was fourteen.
Over down in Mexico, remember? I wouldn't just give it away.
It was stolen.
In Banff.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Yeah, that knife was stolen from me at a party blah blah blah.
Or it went missing or whatever the case might be.
And that was his way of diffusing "well, I don't have the knife anymore so" Um, that'd be that.
When did you leave Banff? Uh, early May, last year.
So you were still there May 17th.
Wasn't that Grandma's birthday? Yeah, I was on a plane on the way to Thunder Bay, Ontario for a family reunion.
That's right, I remember.
We bought him a plane ticket and sent him $100 to take a cab to the airport.
Right.
Yeah.
Then I went back to Banff, stayed a few more days and uh, came home for good.
And what time did you leave Banff on May 17th? I don't know.
Early, I guess.
It was a long time ago.
So you were there the night before.
This feels like it's getting into tricky lawyer questions.
I'm sorry, Detective.
I think we'd like to speak to our lawyer before we take this any further.
I didn't murder anyone.
I just need a quick sample of your blood and I will be on my way.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: It's very simple.
I mean, just provide us with a sample.
We'll take the sample.
We'll go away.
We'll get it analyzed.
And if he's not responsible, he'll never see us again.
Mmmm, no.
I don't think so.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We were stymied.
Basically, he thought "Well, if I never provide a sample, they'll never catch me.
" Back then, there was no mechanism in Canadian law that would allow us to get body fluids from the suspect.
We couldn't go to the courts and say "This is all the evidence that we have.
Would you sign a search warrant so that we can go back and get these samples physically from Ryan Jason Love?" [PATERSON.]
: And we definitely can't get a warrant for his DNA? [MORRISON.]
: Nope.
There is no warrant system in place for DNA.
Need someone to get it off him voluntarily.
So what are we gonna do? We need someone to go undercover.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We decided to go ahead with an undercover operation.
So I put in a call to my good friend, Al Haslett.
Al's probably one of the best policemen I ever met.
He could walk into a bar and within ten minutes, be playing pool with the bad guy that we'd all been trying to get close to.
Ryan Love.
Yeah, I know him.
Hangs with the guys we've been watching.
A bunch of local low-lifes.
We got eyes on the whole crew.
I bet if we open the door for him, he'll just jump right in.
That's OK with you? Whatever gets the bad guys.
Yeah? All right! See ya.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: We needed to get a DNA sample from Ryan Jason Love.
And that was our goal in that undercover operation.
The plan was pretty simple.
On the pretext that our undercover operator was a small-time crook, we would have Ryan Jason Love participate in these petty crimes that we're gonna rob a fishboat.
Love would be given some menial task so we could get close to him.
This is the pier? Yeah.
All you gotta do is keep a lookout.
You see that boat coming, you flash the signal.
And when the boat gets there? And the rest of us roll up, we unload the smokes, then we go make some money.
- [COUGHING.]
- [KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK.]
Who's that? I didn't Relax.
I just ordered some room service, that's all.
But I'm not hungry.
Who said anything about food? We didn't have a mechanism to get body fluids from an accused.
So we set up an undercover operation where Ryan Jason Love would unknowingly provide us with a DNA sample that we could match with the blood in the taxi that was driven by Lucie Turmel.
[KIM.]
: You have this one cowlick that I can't get down.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know.
No matter what I do, it just sticks up like that.
Come on man, that's easy fix.
Your dad will teach you.
We're gonna find your natural part.
- Oh! - Ow man! [LAUGHING.]
See? No need to worry about it now.
All right.
You got me.
OK! We got an early morning.
Call it.
Ladies? Wait, I thought we were gonna Oh, you thought you thought these girls were for you? [LAUGHING.]
Sorry, man, I got my own thing going on.
Besides, you gotta get your sleep, huh? Let's go.
[LAUGHING.]
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: The girls were with us.
They were undercover RCMP officers.
The pulled hair was very clever, but we were uncertain that that evidence would hold up in court.
The act of reaching across and physically removing hair from a person's head, the courts may look on that as an infringement on his constitutional rights and that evidence may get kicked out and not allowed as evidence proper in his trial.
We wanted to make sure that if that sample got kicked out, then we had another sample to back it up.
So the day before, we stripped down his motel room and put in pornography magazines.
We had switched all the sheets, put brand new sheets on.
We're trying to get him sexually excited so that when the girls then leave Wait, I thought we were gonna [DOUG MORRISON.]
: he sexually relieves himself onto the sheets that we put on the beds.
That's uh, not exactly what happened.
Next morning, we went back into the room and checked the sheets.
No hair.
No stains on the sheets.
Damn it.
Hang on a second.
Is that what I think it is? [DOUG MORRISON.]
: We found nothing, other than the tissue, which was the most important item that we found.
We get the samples of the mucous and the hair in analyze and we knew if we matched his DNA, we had our killer.
We got him! [DOUG MORRISON.]
: Ryan Jason Love's DNA sample matched the DNA sample that we got out of Lucie Turmel's cab.
We had found our man.
Nigel Paterson and myself, we go back out to Duncan to make the arrest of Ryan Jason Love.
You know, no matter what we said to him that we have your samples of your DNA and stuff like that and it's matched the blood in the cab and stuff, so we know you're the person responsible, it was just kinda like pfff right over top of his head.
[FEMALE JOURNALIST.]
: Dozens of RCMP investigators have waited a long time for this day to come.
It took two-and-a-half years, but police finally arrested twenty-one-year-old Ryan Love in Duncan, British Columbia.
They've interviewed more than five thousand people in an effort to make an arrest.
Today, they arrived at the airport with the man, they believe, killed Lucie Turmel.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: Love smirked throughout the arrest.
I think he still felt that, with the help of his lawyer, he was going to be able to escape the grasps of prison.
[MALE JOURNALIST.]
: Last May, a preliminary hearing found there was enough evidence to put Love on trial [FEMALE JOURNALIST.]
: The Crown and Defence argued over the way undercover policemen collected samples of Ryan Love's hair and mucous.
Both samples were tested and linked Love to the crime scene.
The hair was plucked from Love's head after he complained of having a cowlick.
In court Love's lawyer insisted police had no legal right to take the sample and argued his client's rights were violated.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: In the end, the DNA evidence was admitted.
Love lost.
He was given a life sentence with no possibility for parole until after twenty years.
Although we are elated, it's hard to fathom that someone would uh, exhibit that much rage.
For what? Money? [MORRISON.]
: Why'd you do it? I needed cash.
To get to the family reunion.
You had money.
Your parents gave you money.
I spent it all.
On booze and drugs.
[COUGHS.]
So you killed an innocent girl, a girl who had her whole life ahead of her for a hundred bucks? My parents would've been so pissed if I missed that plane.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: You never get over an incident like that.
It uh, basically stays with you for the rest of your life.
It was sad for uh, the parents, obviously, her friends even the townfolk.
It represents one of the more intensive cases certainly in Alberta history I would say.
If it weren't for the assistance that we received from police forces and other RCMP detachments in every province and territory in the country, we wouldn't have been able to conduct a successful investigation.
We are satisfied, but it's very hard too.
Something somebody has killed our daughter and it's hard.
[DOUG MORRISON.]
: The Turmels were very appreciative.
Yeah.
Did our job.
The funeral was huge.
I think everybody that worked in the same industries as Lucie and Jeff were there.
Most of the people that were associated at all with Lucie loved the girl.
She was a she was a from all indications, just a neat, a neat kid.